Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics

Lawrence O'Donnell examines the 1968 U.S. presidential election and its role in shaping modern American politics. The election was marked by Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, significant upheaval within the Democratic Party, and Richard Nixon's early political tactics. O'Donnell, who later became host of MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, served as a senior adviser to Senator Patrick Moynihan during this period. He witnessed the election as a formative moment in his own political career. The book draws on O'Donnell's decades-long study of the 1968 election, exploring how it established patterns that would define American politics in the decades to follow. Playing with Fire presents both a detailed account of the election's mechanics and the human drama of a political system and nation undergoing profound change.